Other. DD was born with a bilateral cleft palate, so there was no way she could nurse, she couldn't even create suction on a regular bottle. I ep'ed for 21 months.

Even without the cleft palate, I doubt nursing from the tap would've worked out, because she also has hypotonia (low muscle tone) and was in the NICU for refusing to feed at all. she was an incredibly sleepy baby and totally uninterested in eating for 2-3 weeks, and was tongue tied on top of that. it would've been tough, maybe not as tough as ep'ing was, but not easy.

Yes. The first two weeks I was a little sore, when DS latched on the first thirty seconds or so kind of made my toes curl, that went away though. I had some engorgement, but I just pumped a little bit before feedings and that helped a lot.

I am very lucky that DS was a great nurser from day one. I was able to put him to the breast minutes after birth and he has always had a great latch.

So, we must be doing something right. DS is in the 90th percentile for weight and the 95th for length.

I voted no, but should have voted "other"
I went from a regular B cup to a DD when I was pregnant to an F for the first 6 months of nursing. So when my milk came in, particular on one side, latching on was like try to latch on to a wall. I was also plagued with regular bouts of mastitis and clogged milk ducts.
That said, my daughter at 2 is still nursing and our nursing relationship along with everything else goes so smoothly that I really believe that to say I had a difficult time nursing would not be the whole story, since I really believe that nursing made mothering (and continues to make mothering) a lot A LOT easier. I read once, on mothering.commune, I think, that nursing is often like hitting reset.
So yes, we did have an awful lot of complications, but perservering made life a lot less complicated.

DS had a tough time latching, so the pain was enough to make me cry every time we tried. Flat nipples probably didn't help. My milk didn't come in for a week, and was a fairly low supply when it did. He lost over a pound, was jaundiced. So, we tried a nipple shield, SNS with both EBM and formula, and finally went to EPing. I could only do it for 10 weeks :

When we have another child, I'll try again. Hopefully for longer with better results.

Breastfeeding has been so easy and natural for me. I feel bad when I hear mamas talk about sore breasts, bad latch, and infections. I have not had to deal with any of this. Both my kids latched on minutes after being born and are nursing pros.

I only have one child, but :

I told everyone that my baby was a genius because he knew how to breast feed when he was born (nursed in the delivery room). He doubled his birth weight in less than 4 months.

No. But at least I didn't have the pain/cracked nipples/thrush/mastitis issues some women have. He wasn't getting enough milk from me, but the nursing itself was enjoyable. (Probably part of why I didn't realize it was a bad latch ... because it *wasn't* painful.)

I had the exact opposite problem, my baby was getting plenty of milk, but nursing was very painful and my nipples were cracked and bleeding. I also got mastitis twice. I marked other.

I voted other because I had two very different nursing experiences with DD and DS... DS was induced pre-term at 35 weeks, spent 2 weeks in NICU and several days NPO,weak suck issues, nipple confusion, used a nipple shield for 4 months, but once we worked through the issues (mostly NICU-induced), he nursed until I was 8 months pregnant with DD (he was 17 months old)... I never had supply issues, at least not until I was well into pregnancy w/DD, and was able to pump 16-20 oz/day while working 40+ hours a week when I had to go back to WOH when leave expired 12 weeks pp...

DD, however, latched on and nursed like a pro 45 seconds after emerging from the birth canal, marathon nursed for the first 5 1/2 months of her life, seemingly without latching off (it was really fun trying to use the bathroom, or, goodness forbid, take a shower!), and is still nursing at 2 1/2. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and counting, and she's finally agreed that the baby can share "her" milkies!

Hopefully, this baby will follow DD's nursing pattern more than DS's!

Growing babies, fruits, veges, and chickens on our little urban homestead in the frozen north

I had trouble at first with my son and I blame that on how I over analyzed every move he and I made. I never let him just latch on, I had to check the mechanics of everything. I read so much about breastfeeding "were his lips phlanged?" that it sounded like the most insanely hard thing I'd ever heard of. It took me three months to relax enough to just nurse.

When I was pregnant with Baby Girl I chose to not read a single thing about breastfeeding. After she was born I immediately brought her to my chest and let her root around all she wanted. She licked and sucked. She knew what to do. She still knows what to do, she's nursing right now .

Reneé, 34 year old mom to Antonin 8/04 and Arianna 9/06 . (6 weeks) 5/08. Married to Matt since 6/03 .

I would have to say yes,because we only breastfed for a few days,then ds was hospitalized for a week,and I couldn't pump or BF. We began BF again when he was 5 weeks old after I hade the big surprise of discovering I still had milk when I THOUGHT it had dried up,and he latched on like an old pro! Was painful for me at first,but he seemed to take to the breast like he had been doing it all along! He's almost 9 weeks old and doing great now!

With DS#1, nursing was ok -- sore, but ok -- until my milk came in. And then the pain started. I was engorged beyond the point of belief and my nipples were blistered and cracked. I went to the midwife. She said everything looked pretty normal. : I went to a LC, who said I was experiencing symptoms of Reynaud's syndrome. I went to two different LLL meetings. Neither one of the leaders had much to offer, except tons and tons of encouragement and support. And tips on how to pull out DS's top lip, which he tucked in. Finally, at seven weeks, another LC diagnosed us with thrush. We battled thrush for the entire 20 months that DS#1 nursed. At 6 weeks we had mastitis (which I treated with heat, not antibiotics).

Now that I have a second baby, and have another experience to compare, I know what was going on with DS#1. I have over-active letdown and oversupply. DS#1 was clamping down -- hard -- to control the flow of milk. At about 6 months of age he stopped clamping quite so hard. DS#2 Blistered my nipples like nobody's business, and was diagnosed with a mild tongue-tie. My LLL leader showed me some better positioning techniques. By three or four months of age it had completely resolved by iteself.

My now 14 yo old son was unable to nurse so I was desperate to breastfeed my now 2 yo. After he was born, I couldn't get him to latch properly. I was terrified that we wouldn't get the hang of it and broke down sobbing many times.

I insisted on working many times with a lactation specialist who was very patient and worked with me until we had it down. I think it was more difficult because I was so anxious about it but we eventually got the hang of it. He is now 2 1/2 and a very avid nurser.

Fairly easy. He had a little trouble latching at first, but a few short visits with a LC while still in the hospital solved that. After that, he was sleepy and hard to wake up for a couple weeks. No pain or engorgement, though.